Letter from the Mint editor: Don’t go hiking in February

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So here we are, young, dumb and broke college students. We don’t know what we want or who we want, but we know that we don’t want to be left out of anything, including the most overrated holiday of the year, even if we can’t afford to do anything fancy or romantic.

Once upon a time, I cared about Valentine’s Day. For the first few years of my relationship, I found it essential for everyone to know that my boyfriend actually likes me and wants to take me out every once in a while.

My freshman year, we decided to go on a Valentine’s Day hike. Feb. 14, 2016, was nothing like this year. It was sleeting and raining and snowing, but the sun came out that Saturday so we decided to come out of the cave that was our apartment for a morning walk.

So obviously, we hit up Kamiak Butte.

Upon arrival, it was slick on the way up the Butte, but it was still enjoyable. It was freezing, but I was just enjoying being able to take photos at the end to prove to all of my single friends that I’m better than them.

We got to the top, took a bunch of cute selfies and headed back down. Bae promised he was going to take me to breakfast, so we probably moved down the butte a lot quicker than we went up.

Did I mention it was slick?

As a side effect of the hunger and wet weather, I slipped. I guess it wasn’t really a slip, it was more of a slide. On my back. On my white North Face. When I finally stopped sliding, my boyfriend was hysterical and I was covered in mud. Like, my entire ass and back, just completely soaked.

He continued to laugh until I reminded him that I now had to get in his car.

The next year, my friends and I tried a similar thing. We wanted to go hiking at Elk River in Idaho. This was about a 45-minute drive, but we thought it would be fun and worth it.

As we drove farther into Idaho, the snow started accumulating. Somehow, that wasn’t enough of a red flag to turn around.

When we got to Elk River, the hiking trail was closed and the parking lot was covered with at least two feet of snow. We ended up driving off on some logging road and sliding around on the ice before going home.

So, moral of the story: Just go out to breakfast. Don’t try to go hiking in February. It’s not a good idea. You’re either going to get covered in mud or stuck in the snow. Breakfast at Zoe’s sounds a lot more appealing to me, so I think that’s what we’ll plan for this year.